Happy Valentine’s Day! Hope you’re spending it with the ones you love, whether that’s your significant-other, children, family, friends, or even your fur-babies!

Speaking of … now is a great time to spread a little love by donating to your favorite animal rescue/welfare-org and entering to win my February giveaway! (Details here.)

(You know what else Valentine’s Day means? 10 more days of being in my 20s … eek!)

In the meantime, I like admiring some of the ones on Etsy…

Vintage Set of 2 Pyrex Salt an… AffordableAdornment $8.00 USD	Set of Deer Salt and Pepper Sh… CircusBearVintage $16.50 USD	Vintage Milk Glass Flower Powe… embeehat $10.00 USD	Jadeite Salt and Pepper Shaker… JITTT $65.00 USD
Hazel Atlas Hoosier style salt… MontanaFarmFinds $30.00 USD	Vintage Helvetica Salt and Pep… sofralma $15.00 USD	Vintage Butterfly Salt and Pep… afternoonowlvintage $11.00 USD	Enesco Sunflower Buds Salt and… SheAteMyCrayons $9.00 USD
Vintage - Miniature Mason Jar … 1804primitives $4.95 USD	Fab and Funky Flower Power Ret… TheBountifulBird $15.00 USD	Vintage Kitchen Salt and Peppe… mverdi $22.50 USD	Vintage Glass Salt and Pepper … take2vintage $15.00 USD
Hobnail Milk Glass Salt and Pe… BullfrogLeap $19.00 USD	Salt and Pepper Owls cyndalees $8.00 USD	Bakelite Glass Salt and Pepper… SandysEyeCandy $35.00 USD	Vintage Diner Coffee Pots Salt… sofralma $8.00 USD

Do you have a beloved set of S&P shakers?

Here’s the questions:

1. What’s your name?
2. Blog URL
3. Write: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
4. Favorite quote
5. Favorite song at the moment
6. Favorite band/singers at the moment
7. Say anything you want
8. Tag 3-5 bloggers to do this meme too!

First we went to Graham’s Used Records, Tapes & CDs. I’ve never seen so much vinyl in my life!

Boston’s Amanda on a 45? You know I had to have it! (Uh, hello — it does have my name written all over it! HA.)

The other shop that we spent a lot of time exploring had a little bit of everything … and when I say everything, I’m not exaggerating. It rivaled every episode of Hoarders that I’ve ever seen. The shelves went floor to ceiling and there were only about 3 feet between them. Most aisles were so tightly jammed that if you wanted to get down an aisle someone else was browsing, you had to back track and go around because there wasn’t enough room for two people to pass by each other without knocking things over.

There was a serious Polaroid graveyard. I was tempted… but I just don’t know enough about them to know good from bad or what model I should get, etc. They were fun to dig through though.

I’m kicking myself now for not grabbing those juice glasses; when I was a kid, my mother had the bigger drinking glasses that were that same print.

Am I the only one that gets a warm-fuzzy when you run across 80s stuff you remember from your childhood?

. . . .

1. Baking a cake for Mike’s 29th birthday.
2. The resulting cake.
3. A cute little heart pin a couple of my sweet coworkers surprised me with!
4. #FEBphotoaday, Day 1: YourView
5. #FEBphotoaday, Day 3: Hands (got my hands on my first shamrock shake for the year!)
6. Snuggling with my Gracie-dogger.

P.S. Don’t forget about my big birthday giveaway
going on throughout February!

As a Pennsylvanian, it was always a big deal — I remember making paper groundhog cutouts in elementary school, and perching on the edge of my seat watching Good Morning America every February 2nd to find out if he’d see his shadow! Even in college, I’d sport a cute “Punxy Phil” baby-tee to class to celebrate. I think it’s such a fun, quirky holiday; plus I think groundhogs are darn-cute little critters!

Did you ever wonder how Groundhog Day got started?

German families settling in central Pennsylvania during the 1700s brought with them the tradition of Candlemas Day, which can be traced back to the pagan Imbolic celebration that falls mid-way between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. Tradition suggests that if the weather was fair and the sun was out on that day, the second half of winter would be stormy and cold.

In Europe, Germans used a badger for their prognostication: if the sun was shining and the badger cast a shadow, then they could expect more wintery weather. In Pennsylvania, the badger was replaced by the groundhog.

Of course, lots of other cities have joined in the fun! There are at least 15 other groundhog-meterologists across the US, including Buckeye Chuck in Ohio and General Beauregard Lee in Georgia.

This year, Punxutawney Phil predicted 6 more weeks of winter, but according to Wikipedia, a majority of his counterparts predicted an early spring for 2012 … here’s hoping!

(images via here and here)

I know I’ve posted before about how much my rescue-pup Grace means to me. So, my wish is this: that all my blog readers would send a donation to an animal rescue or animal welfare organization during the month of February!

It can be $1 or $100. It can be to a national organization like the ASPCA or the the PetFinder Foundation, or to a local shelter or rescue in your area. Every little bit helps! These animals have SO much joy to give and just need the opportunity to be matched with a loving home!

How could you resist that pout!?

Here’s the extra-fun part: Birthdays are no fun without gifts right? So I also wanted to include a BIG giveaway! Three of my very favorite bloggers have donated prizes and I’ll be choosing 5 winners!…

Prize #1: A handmade hairpiece from Kaelah’s Hive + Honey Shoppe!

My name is Kaelah Bee and I’m a 23 year old small business owner, graphic designer and lifestyle blogger living in Nashville, Tennessee. I share my day to day with my fiance Mike and our two fat bulldogs, Georgia and Pipkin. (And there’s a silly cat named Enid hiding somewhere!) I like to make handmade pretty things and I run Honeybean Mobile Boutique out of a renovated peach + white 1968 Yellowstone camper. Our three munchkins are the equivalent to children for us and we spoil them rotten. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Kaelah’s Blog | Honeybean Boutique | Hive + Honey Shoppe | @kaelahbee on Twitter

Prize #2 & 3: A Print from Lady Hue (TWO Winners!)

I am thrilled to support Mandi and this great cause! I was never a big animal person growing up, but just over a year ago I happened to come across the cutest puppy I had ever seen. My heart melted and two days later, to my husbands surprise, I took him home with me. Albus is a quirky, overly-energetic mini poodle that I have come to love. I never knew animals could be so clever or loving, but he filled a little animal sized hole in my heart that I didn’t even know existed. I hope we can all join in this cause to help all of the lonely animals out there that are looking for a little loving.

Hue & Hum Blog | Lady Hue Etsy Shop | @LadyHue on Twitter

Prize #4: Twinkle Twinkle Locket from Brittney’s Two Little Moos Shop

I’m Brittney, a late twenties interwebs geek — wearing the hats of wife, pet parent, worker bee & charity crafter — sharing life with my husband & our furry little zoo. A former vet tech and rescue rehabilitation specialist, the plight of animals has always been dear to my heart. I’m mama to four rescue kitties and three crazy spaniels; our latest being a puppy mill survivor who has stolen our hearts as he learns to enjoy a cruelty-free life. My shop, named after my first two pups, was born out a desire to create quality goods while also helping those in need – so 50% of more of my profit is donated to varying animal welfare groups each month, and everything comes gift-wrapped in 100% eco-friendly materials for free. When I’m not doing the 9-5, I moonlight whenever possible in: blogging, senses of humor, animal welfare, all things Disney & Tim Burton, photography, gluten-free cooking, books & films, zombie fighting and dreaming of the day I am no longer just a Muggle.

LaMidge Blog | Two Little Moos Shop | @itslamidge on Twitter

Prize #5: A Blog Bling Kit from PuglyPixel

Finally, I wanted to contribute a prize myself, and lately I have been loving the Blog Bling Kit from PuglyPixel. The photo templates I used for this post come from the kit, along with lots of other fun “bling” for your blog!

How to Enter

Make a donation of any amount to your favorite animal rescue, shelter or welfare organization between February 1, 2012 and February 29, 2012. After donating, enter your info into the Rafflecopter widget below to enter! Get extra entries by Tweeting, posting to Facebook, or posting about this giveaway on your blog then entering that info into the Rafflecopter widget also.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Feel free to comment on this post, but please note that comments on this post will not count as entries. Please make sure to put your entries into the Rafflecopter widget (above).

Winners will be announced March 1, 2012 and will be chosen at random using Rafflecopter/Random.org. One prize per person.

I participated for a while in the January photo-a-day challenge, but got behind. It’s nice to start fresh again!

I’m hanging out at home, waiting for him to get home from work (poor guy) and decided to bake him a birthday cake.

I was experimenting with Kinotopic for iPhone – so fun! It lets you take a short video then isolate just one piece to create an animated GIF. Here’s my Kinotopic profile, though there’s not much there.

Well … I’m certainly not going to quit my day job and become a cake-decorator. But I think it turned out cute!

If you have an iPhone, follow me (@mandi224) on Instagram, or check out my feed via GramFeed.

1. Using my vintage Pyrex to make dinner earlier this week.
2. Just normal, dorky me.
3. One of my favorite ModCloth dresses!
4. Sewing a new tote bag with some fabulous repro fabric (that’s the wrong side – the right side is super vibrant!)
5. New living room decor – Mike and I had to have this.
6. Vanilla-scented owl candle I found on clearance for $3 at Target!